A Bloody Finish
by Kasi Karra
Summary: It has been 3 years, since Naruto and Sasuke battled for the final time . . . Naruto is hokage and peace has settled over the villages, but now the agression is starting to stir. The Fourth Great Ninja war is about to begin. SakuraxNaruto
1. Chapter 1

**Hey this is an idea for a story. Please tell me what you think and I may continue it. **

**I know it's short but the following chapters will be longer k?**

Naruto the hokage of the hidden leaf village stood looking out of one of the big windows of his office. He stared out over the village as he held Hinata, his soon to be wife in his arms. Sakura sat at another desk near by organizing papers.

Sakura quietly placed the last stack of papers neatly on the corner of her desk. "If that is all," she said as she stood up. Naruto barely nodded his approval. Quietly she walked out of the room and closed the door.

Sakura made it back to her apartment just as the rain began to fall. She looked around the dark immaculate living room and sighed. She tried humming to herself to renew her spirits, but it didn't help.

When she walked into her room, she saw the picture on her dresser . . . the picture of her last team. Kakashi, Naruto and her.

Sakura silently let the tears fall as she picked up the old frame. "Why?" she asked as she opened up the frame to reveal the picture behind it. The picture of her first team. Kakashi, Naruto, her . . . and Sasuke. She gently ran her fingers over Sasuke's face. "Why?" she asked again. She looked up into the black clouds pour down rain outside and let her thoughts slip back to that dark day, 3 long years ago . . .

_"Why?" Naruto asked unable to keep the demon back. "WHY?" he screamed as the Kyubi's power soared through his veins. Behind him 7 tails of red chakra waved._

_"Foolish Naruto," Sasuke said as he unsealed the cursed seal on his neck and his wings sprouted._

_The battle continued to drag on and on. I didn't know who to root for. _

_Kakashi-sensei stood next to me. He was analyzing the battle and I knew that he would kill either of them if this got out of control, but I couldn't mentally bring myself to it. I turned my attention back to the attacking boys. The battle just got fiercer and fiercer. _

_"Why?" I finally asked myself. "Why have I let this . . . this . . . love hold me back . . . but can I really call it love? Yes I can. I love Sasuke more then anything . . . but what good will it do me. He'll never love me back." _

_I watched as Sasuke activated his final chidori with a slight hesitation when he saw Kakashi out of the corner of his eye. Naruto shakily tried to stand, but he was unable to maintain his chakra and fell down unconscious._

_"No," I had whispered. "Don't do it!" I had screamed as I rushed forward._

_I saw Sasuke twitch at the memory of his battle on the hospital roof top, but I could still see the murderous intent in his sharingan eyes. _

_Kakashi with his sharingan eye open, made it to the danger before me and grabbing Sasuke's wrist, swung him in a new direction, head first towards me._

_"I'm so sorry," I remember whispering as his chakra ran out and the chidori died. With a chakra loaded fist, I broke his skull and back with one hit . . . an instant death. _

_I collapsed to my knees and would have cried for hours on hours, but I knew that Naruto needed my help. Kakashi called me over and I quickly healed Naruto to the best of my abilities, but in many areas, the Kyubi had beaten me._

"Now we have nothing to fear," Sakura thought. "Naruto nearly lost his mind when he heard of Sasuke's death, but he did remain sane and now we don't have to worry about the Akatsuki, because he hunted them down and killed them one by one. We have no reason to fear."

Sakura laid her head on her pillow and held the picture close to her chest as a fresh wave of tears spilled from her eyes. "But why do I have this knot in my heart that says the worst is yet to come . . ."


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So many things came up and then I had a friend that pointed out a couple of plot holes that I've been trying to creativly fill in. So I am soooooooo sorry for the wait and I promise I'll have the next chapter up faster.**

"Dreams . ..  
Goals . . .  
Hopes . . . .  
Wishes . . .

That is what has kept me going all these years," thought Naruto as he let his mind wandered back into the past. He ran through his life like running along a timeline. The long naps and pranks at the academy that were always followed by a scolding from Iruka-sensei. The first missions of chasing cats and fighting Haku. The arguments and competitions with Sasuke he had along with the beatings from Sakura. The teachings of Kakashi-sensei whether they were helpful or just plain painful. Naruto cringed at the thought of Kakashi's secret technique. All through out the memories he also remembered the power of the nine tail fox demon being released. "I'm going to be the next Hokage. Believe it!" Naruto heard his young self say over and over again.

"So many dreams, but not all of them can be achieved," he thought with a slightly sad smile as he got up from behind his desk. He went back to his favorite place in front of the window and stared out into the distance.  
Naruto's ears perked up a little as he heard the door quietly open. "N-na-naruto?" asked a timid voice.  
Naruto turned his head to see the light lavender eyes watching him. "Yes?"  
"Is there something wrong?" Hinata asked slipping into the room and closing the door.  
"No, nothing," Naruto said turning his attention back to the hokage's monument. He let his gaze slowly pass over them one by one. The first hokage, the second hokage, the old man, his father, crazy Tsunade, and then his goofy smiling face kept its tongue stuck out and its eyes shut. Naruto chuckled. "The only one to not look serious."  
"You always were happy and enthusiastic like that," Hinata said standing next to him.  
A little reluctantly he put an arm around her and pulled her close. "Why am I doing this again?" he asked himself.

Flashback

_"Kakashi-sensei?"  
"Yes?"  
"Never mind . . ." Naruto trailed off.  
Kakashi sighed. "She denied you again," Kakashi said matter of factly.  
"How did you know?" Naruto said perking up.  
"Ever since the beginning of Team 7 I could see that you cared about Sakura, Sakura cared about Sasuke, and at times Sasuke cared about you just as much as you cared about him."  
"What are you on Kakashi? Sasuke never cared about me."  
"Are you so sure?" Kakashi asked. Naruto stared at him clueless as ever. "Think about it. Sasuke saved you life when you battled Haku, he tried to protect you against Gaara when Gaara became a monster, and he didn't kill you the first time you battled."  
Naruto lowered his head. "You're probably right. I thought that maybe since Sasuke was gone, Sakura would like me like I like her . . ."  
"But right now she's just too heart broken over Sasuke," Kakashi finished for Naruto.  
"Yeah."  
"So you wanted to know if there's a way to make Sakura fall in love with you," Kakashi said, not asked. The blonde boy looked up with pleading blue eyes.  
"Yes?" Naruto asked expectantly.  
Kakashi smiled. "'Women are very jealous creatures."  
"Jealous?" Naruto asked not getting the logic.  
"Yes Jealous."  
Naruto stared at his teacher. '"I don't get it," he finally said.  
Kakashi sighed. 'What was I thinking? Our Hokage is still the number one most clueless ninja ever to live.' "Women are jealous creatures which means that if one has something that they want they will fight to get it."  
"Oh. You mean like when Ino and Sakura fought for Sasuke." Kakashi stared at Naruto.  
"Wow. Maybe he's just been hiding his real brains all these years," thought Kakashi.  
"Or is it like Choji always wanting the last piece of all the food," Naruto continued.  
Kakashi sighed, "Or maybe he's still the same clueless boy." "What I meant is that if you get a girlfriend that Sakura may get jealous."  
"And she'd fight to save me in my pit of despair with another girl," Naruto said with a smile as he slammed a hand on the table. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said saluting his teachers before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.  
Kakashi stared at the place where his former student had sat. '"What have I done?" Kakashi asked himself._

_Naruto sailed from roof top to roof top looking for the perfect girl when he spied Hinata rushing home. Naruto smiled. "Perfect!" He jumped down and landed in front of the running girl.  
Hinata screamed as she bowled into him. "N-n-n-n-na-na-naru-to-to," she said stuttering more then usual. "Wh-what brings you here?"  
"I wanted to know if you go out with me on Friday night!" Naruto said with a big smile. Hinata's face turned a deep crimson red before she fainted in Naruto's lap. "I'll take that as a yes," Naruto said with a smile._

End flashback

"So I took her back home," Naruto still thought to himself. "But even after weeks of dating Sakura didn't seem to be jealous. Stupid Kakashi I had thought. So what did I do? I took matters into my own hands. I proposed to Hinata in front of Sakura . . . What have I done?" Naruto asked himself again.

Sakura sat at her desk examining an upside down picture she had uncovered in the bottom of her drawer. She had found it a year ago when cleaning the hokage's desk in preparation for Naruto.

It was a picture of her battered young self standing next to the smiling late Hokage, Tsunade.

No one knew who had killed her. All anyone really knew was that she had sent her assistant, Shizune, out on an important mission. After hearing nothing of her for months, the hokage started to get depressed and from time to time her transformation jutsu would slip. One dark night a team came back from an important mission. On the way home they had found the remains of a bird and a lock of Shizune's hair, wrapped in snack skin.

Enraged, Tsunade had left the village, leaving new craters with every step.

Sakura had tried to keep track of her as time went on, but information was scarce and far between. Months later, Sakura had gotten a small message by pigeon. Temari had written to tell Naruto, the now new hokage, that Tsunade had died. It appeared that it had been by poison, but whether it was suicide or murder, no one was sure.

Sakura smiled as she remembered "talking" to Naruto when he refused to be hokage. She smiled as she remembered the 5 minute date . . . the beating . . . and Kakashi's "I have nothing to do with this" smile.

Eventually, Naruto had caved in and screamed, "All right I'll be hokage."

After that . . . he didn't stand a chance.

Immediately Kakashi and I grabbed Naruto and hauled him through the chuunin exams. His opponents were real jounin that didn't stand a chance. After that we forged a couple papers saying that he completed missions blah blah blah and decided to promote him to Shinobi. Immediately people appeared, the ceremony and what not was completed in under 10 minutes and Naruto was Hokage . . . with no way out of it.

We all knew that he didn't want to be hokage now because he hadn't saved Sasuke, but who else had had the desire to do so. The three great Shinobi were now dead, none of the higher ANBU or other Shinobi wanted the place as hokage and so we were left with no choice.

Our number one loudest and most unpredictable ninja was our hokage . . .


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry, I've hit this wall of laziness and writer's block (not a good combo ) ****I'll try to get this story out as fast and well as I can.**

"Temari and Shikamaru reporting," Temari said the next morning standing tall next to Shikamaru in the hokage's office.

Sakura smiled as she pulled out a new sheet of paper and began to take notes.

"Your point is?" asked Naruto as he leaned back in his seat and put his feet on the desk.

Shikamaru sighed. "Even Gaara looks more professional than this," he thought with a silent groan. Temari turned to look at Shikamaru confused. "What do I do?" she thought.

Sakura sighed. "Was you mission successful?" she asked.

"Hey that's my job!" Naruto exclaimed jumping to his feet and pointing a finger at her.

"Then I'd suggest that YOU DO YOUR JOB!!" she screamed at him. Temari kept her face blank, but she was laughing so hard inside.

Naruto shrank back a little and frowned. Under his breath he muttered something about Sakura being evil. "Was your trip successful?" Naruto asked sitting down and pretending to be professional as he put his chin on his folded hands.

"Yes. We retrieved the scrolls that Shinji asked for and," Temari began. (Shinji is a fictional character I made up for this scene. He achieved the rank of jounin, but he prefers to lock himself in his own makeshift town library. He needed a few scrolls from the sand village to finish some research.)

"All right you're dismissed," Naruto said, putting his feet on the desk again. He pulled his hat down and folded his arms.

"But Hokage we have," Shikamaru said shocked.

"No buts," Naruto repeated.

Temari opened her mouth to argue, but quickly closed it when she saw Sakura's glare. Sakura pointed to the door and they all filed out. Sakura pulled out a pad of paper and a pen from her bag as they walked down the hall. "First, Welcome home," Sakura started.

"Yes, It's good to be home," Shikamaru said staring out a window for a second. "But we've got to talk to Naruto, I mean the Hokage."

"You heard him. 'Your Dismissed.'," she said mocking Naruto's voice.

Temari laughed. "We were starting to worry that Naruto wouldn't find out about the war."

Sakura stopped. "The what?"

"The war . . ." Shikamaru said. "The sand village was attacked a week ago. They're preparing to strike back with in a few days against another village. The lightning and water countries are already at war. We're one of the few villages left undecided."

Sakura stormed into the Hokage's room dragging in Temari and Shikamaru against their will.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked looking up from a comic book.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" she screamed at him, letting go of Temari and Shikamaru as she continued to march towards the desk.

Naruto cocked his head as he didn't understand the question or the danger that he was in. "What?" he asked.

Sakura reached across the desk and lifted Naruto out of his seat and shook him hard. "You decide that you are all high and mighty and you're stupid enough not to listen about a war that is looming over the land!!" she screamed.

A few ninja walking down the hall increased their pace as they heard Sakura's temper raging inside.

"Well you're not making much sense again," Naruto said putting his hands on hers and looking into her raging eyes. The anger seemed to come to life as they stared into each other's angry eyes, but there was something behind their stares that wasn't anger. They stayed that way for a few seconds that seemed to stretch on for an eternity. Temari and Shikamaru stood where they were unsure of what to do.

Sakura exhaled the breath she didn't know she was holding and dropped Naruto into his seat. "Temari. Shikamaru," she said. They immediately snapped to attention. "Continue your report," she said walking to her seat. She plopped herself into her seat and continued to take notes as if nothing had happened.

Naruto was about to argue, but another of Sakura's firey glares changed his mind.

"About a month ago the water and lightning countries started a war. No one knows the reason why yet, but we have spies still looking into it," Temari reported.

"Meanwhile the wind and earth countries declared war a couple days ago. This has become a full scale war and we are the only country that we know of that is neutral right now. The Kazekage sent a petition asking for help with us," Shikamaru said placing a sealed scroll on the Hokage's desk.

Naruto was stunned. He calmly made the signs and unsealed the scroll and read over the petition. "You're dismissed," he whispered.

Temari and Shikamaru bowed before leaving. "What do you think?" Temari asked once they were in the hall way.

"Naruto is very impulsive. If Sakura is able to keep a level mind we may avoid the war, but I believe that war is inevitable."

"Sakura?"

"Sakura has a lot of power over Naruto as you saw today during the meeting. Her word will have a lot of weight in this matter."


	4. Chapter 4

Hi Readers!!!!

I'm soooooo sorry that this took so long and I'll try to make it up by finishing this story and getting the chapters up a little faster. Thank you for being patient with me and again I'm sooooooooooo sorry.

Kasi Karra

"We don't have a choice," Naruto repeated slamming his hands on his desk as he stood up and stared Sakura down.

"Of course we do!" Sakura yelled just as loud. She remembered at the last moment not to add chakara to her punches as she slammed her fists into her desk. She'd learned after the first two or three desks, that he desks had to be made of metal so that they didn't shatter. Sakura's fists still left two big dents on her desktop.

"Why do you think there's a choice?" Naruto yelled back.

Sakura took in a calming breath and held it a couple seconds before exhaling. "I know that you want to help Gaara and the others, but what about the children and families here," Sakura asked walking to the giant window behind Naruto's desk and swept her hand out in front of her to take in all of Kanoha.

Naruto sight as he sat down at his desk. He put his elbows on the desk and laid his head on his hands. "I know that this is putting a lot of people in danger, but this is a war. I have ANBU reports saying that other countries are choosing sides too. If we don't choose a side now, we'll end up being run over as both sides try to get control of the last country. We'll be more of a battle ground if we remain neutral territory."

Sakura sighed. Leaning her head against a fist she'd carefully placed on the window. "Isn't there another way," Sakura asked.

"Unfortunately there isn't. I've looked over all of the other options," replied keeping his head down.

Sakura looked up at Naruto. "He's really grown hasn't he?" she asked herself.

Naruto's head shot up and he had a smile on his face that meant he was up to something. "Anyways I owe Gaara a favor."

Sakura was quiet for a long second. "YOU WHAT?!" she asked landing a right hook to Naruto's jaw.

Down the hall Shikimaru and Temari winced as they heard Naruto's body hit a nearby wall.

"Isn't Sakura strong enough to punch Naruto through the wall?" Temari asked Shikimaru.

Shikimaru laughed, "The first time Sakura hit Naruto while they were in that room, we went through the wall and half way across town before crashing into the Hyuga manor, where he wasn't lucky to land in Hinata's room. Hinata fainted and Naruto was lucky he was Hokage, because if he wasn't Hisashi would have had his hide." Temari smiled barely able to hold her laughter back. "After all of their arguments Sakura's learned how hard to do damage to Naruto without doing too much damage to the rest of the village."

"WHAT DO YOU OWE HIM?" Sakura demanded shaking Naruto to the point Naruto thought his head would snap off.

"Sa-sa-sa-sakura-chan it's nothing really?" Naruto stuttered trying to get his point across.

"Nothing?" Sakura asked turning and throwing him into another wall. She walked over and picked Naruto up, "If it's nothing then why would you bring it up?"

"Uh hehehe," Naruto laughed rubbing the back of his head unable to answer her question.

Sakura sighed as she let go of him and let him fall to the floor. "I swear Naruto," she commented mending his other arm which she had broken in three places.

"You know that I heal faster then anyone!" Naruto protested trying to pull out of her grip.

"Want to break your wrist or have your arm heal crooked?" Sakura asked tightening her grip to just before the breaking point.

Naruto squirmed. "Okay I give. I give. Just stop squeezing," he protested.

"Maybe now is not the best time to interrupt," thought Kakashi upon hearing Naruto's last comment. Kakashi shook his head as he turned to leave.

"Come in Kakashi-senpai," Sakura called.

"Kakashi's here?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi shook his head with a small laugh as he turned back and entered the hokage's room. Nothing slipped past Sakura. Naruto on the other hand . . .

"Kakashi!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly as if he hadn't believed Sakura.

Sakura hit him on the head hard enough to make a bruise, but not hard enough to knock him out.

"Good new?" she asked looking at his somewhat smiling expression. "Probably not," she thought. "He's probably just remenising about the old times when we were a team and things were easier." Sakura smiled as she too slipped into a remenise of long ago.

Naruto looked from Sakura to Kakashi and back again. "Did I miss something?" he asked.

A few mintues later when everything was settled Kakashi began to give his report.

"Unfortunately there isn't anything major to report as of now," Kakashi said pulling some papers out of his kunai pouch. "The only thing I've been able to find is these missing reports." Kakashi shook the papers a little as if the folds would disappear before handing them to Naruto.

Sakura got up from her desk and looked over Naruto's shoulder. "They're all from different villages," she commented noticing the different headbands on the ninja.

"So every village appears to be missing at least one ninja?" Naruto asked, organizing the papers into villages. An average of two ninja were missing from the other four main villages and at least one from all of the other villages like the sound village and even the waterfall village were all now missing.

"No one is missing from our village?" Naruto asked as he laid the last paper down in a pile of its own.

Kakashi shook his head. "No one is missing yet."

"There's no connection between these people," Sakura commented fanning out a few of the piles.

"Why do you say that?" Naruto asked looking at all of the papers.

"Well this missing ninja was part of Mizukage's tracking nin," Sakura said pointing to a paper with a lady that had lavender hair. "And this child isn't even a genin yet," Sakura commented moving her finger to point at the picture of a small child that didn't even look 8 years old from the sound village.

"There has to be a connection," Naruto said looking over the papers again.

Kakashi interrupted before the two could start another argument. "We won't know until we."

Kakashi's sentence was cut off by a loud howl. Naruto jumped up, his chair rolling back to hit the wall behind him. "That's Akamaru!"

Naruto spun around and whipped open a window. Followed closely by Kakashi and Sakura, Naruto made his way towards the main gate where Akamaru's howl had come from. Temari and Shikamaru joined them shortly after they had left the Hokage's tower.

Akamaru's ears pricked up as he heard someone coming. He turned and growled threateningly as Naruto and the others landed in front of him.

"Easy Akamaru," Naruto said waving his hands in front of him with a big smile and a laugh to himself. Akamaru didn't really like him and he didn't really like Akamaru.

"Kiba!" Sakura exclaimed catching a glimpse of a bloody, dying Kiba behind Akamaru. Sakura ran up to help Kiba, but Akamaru moved to confront her as she reached into her kunai pouch.

Sakura quickly pulled her hands out and stopped in front of Akamaru. "Easy Akamaru. I'm not going to hurt him. I just want to help." Sakura kept her voice calm and even as she offered her hand out for Akamaru to smell.

Akamaru stood his ground and still growled at her. Behind Naruto, Kakashi made a few hand signs before crouching to the ground for a summoning.

Naruto turned around as he was momentarily enveloped by a cloud of smoke.

"Yo," Pakkun called raising a paw.

"Pakkun!" Naruto exclaimed excited.

"Geeze. Not you again," Shikamaru said very unexcitedly as he remembered Pakkun from when he had gone to rescue Sasuke form Gaara.

"Well I could say the same for you to," Pakkun said eyeing Shikamaru.

"Pakkun, we need you to talk to Akamaru," Kakashi said, hinting that now was not the time to be fighting.

"Sure thing Kakashi," Pakkun replied, walking over towards Akamaru. Pakkun barked at Akamaru and Akamaru barked back. "Are you sure this is Akamaru," Pakkun asked pointing a paw at Akamaru while he looked at Kakashi.

Kakashi lifted his head band and looked at Akamaru with his sharingan eye. "It is Akamaru. Why?" he asked replacing his head band.

"I don't remember Akamaru being so one track minded," Pakkun commented. "All he keeps saying is that he needs to protect his master." Akamaru barked again threateningly at Pakkun before turning and jumping at Sakura.

"Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed as Sakura stood there, caught off guard. Naruto ran towards Sakura and dove. Grabbing her around the waist he pulled her down and just out of reach of Akamaru's snapping jaws.

"Shadow possession jutsu," Shikamaru whispered, catching Akamaru's shadow, before he could turn and attack Sakura again. "Geeze," he muttered to himself.

"Even I don't remember this dog being that violent," Temari commented to herself.

Sakura sat up and ran a hand, glowing green with chakra, over Akamaru's side. "He's been drugged," she confirmed. "But I don't want to try an antibiotic, because I don't know how it will affect him."

"Don't worry about it," a new voice said from the gates.

The other's turned to see Tsume and Hana, Kiba's mom and sister, running towards them. "We'll take care of Akamaru," Hana said pulling a needle from a kit she had with her.

"You worry about Kiba," Tsume replied as Hana carefully injected it into Akamaru's side. Akamaru tried to fight off the drug, but because he was unable to move from the shadow possession jutsu, he soon fell into an induced sleep. Shikamaru released the jutsu and Hana and Tsume eased Akamaru to the ground.

Sakura tied up her hair and hurried to Kiba's side. She sighed with relief as she found the damage was far less serious then she had first anticipated. The kunai attack had done some serious damage to his back, but it was fixable and Kiba was still breathing. A little heavier then was safe, but at least he was breathing.

Sakura pulled out the kunai before putting her chakra to work.

"Who could have done this?" Naruto asked, gently picking up a kunai.

Kakashi shook his head as he picked the other few kunai. Behind Naruto an ANBU member with a bird mask appeared. "Are you alright Hokage-sama?" she asked.

Naruto nodded casting a sad glance at Kiba. "I want to know who did this, where they went and why?" he said tossing the kunai to the ANBU.

The ANBU caught the kunai and gave a short bow before disappearing.

Naruto sighed. "Don't worry," Kakashi said putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto looked up to see Kakashi cheery expression. "Everything will work out in the end."

"Thanks Kakashi," Naruto said with a smile as he looked out towards the horizon.

Out in the woods two jounin jumped from tree to tree obviously in a hurry. "Did you really have to try killing Kiba?" the jounin with short teal hair asked his companion.

His companion laughed, tossing her burgundy colored braid over her shoulder. "Of course I did. I was one blood sample short," she said with a demonic grin.

The man shook his head. "You're always leaving the important things to the last minute."

The lady shrugged. "Well it won't matter soon now will it?" she asked with a smirk. "Soon peace will reign and Chiyoko will guide us there."


End file.
